This episode is packed full of lots of good stuff! The biggest question is, of course, "Is Sheridan still alive?" It's interesting to see how much he really is the nexus, how everyone from Ivanova to the ambassadors to Delenn falls apart without him. And when watching this the first time, we weren't really sure he's still alive either - we could be seeing him in some kind of after- or between-life. I guess we would expect Delenn to keep up hope that he still lives, but even Zack wants to believe it.

For all of them, the question is that which confronts survivors of deceased family members/friends at all times and places: Do we continue to hope or accept the death and go on living? Sheridan faced that question himself after Anna's (supposed) death, and it was devastating to experience her return when he had finally fallen in love with Delenn.

G'Kar's voice-over is wonderful, showing him to be the spiritual leader, the only one who doesn't lose it all. And he is the one who thinks of Garabaldi and does something about it.

Nice play on words by Morden - he's only a "shadow" of himself. Interesting his answer to the question on whether Sheridan is still alive, "Which Sheridan?" That leads us to assume that Anna perished in the explosion, though we can't be sure - if Morden survived, so could she have.

The reference to the "eye" which is searching for them is strongly reminiscent of the Lord of the Rings! However, this one takes on a benevolent tone of voice (the father's), even sad. What does it seek to achieve?

The tragedy of Mollari continues - he gets what he wants when he no longer desires it. The confrontation with Cartasia is fantastically written and acted, and I agree, Krimmer does an excellent job of portraying someone so deluded. I'm reminded of Peter Ustinov's depiction of Nero, burning down Rome while thinking only of his own desire for immortality.

The beauty of this episode is that it answers some questions, leaves others mysterious, and raises lots of new ones. An excellent way to set the stage for the new season! Oh, and I like the "one line each" narration of the title sequence. One of the things that makes B5 unique is changes like that, something other shows would not have done.

This episode is packed full of lots of good stuff! The biggest question is, of course, "Is Sheridan still alive?" It's interesting to see how much he really is the nexus, how everyone from Ivanova to the ambassadors to Delenn falls apart without him. And when watching this the first time, we weren't really sure he's still alive either - we could be seeing him in some kind of after- or between-life. I guess we would expect Delenn to keep up hope that he still lives, but even Zack wants to believe it.

Since I first went through B5 after buying the season DVD packages, I supected Sheridan must be still alive, since he was one of the characters pictured on the Season 4 cover. But I wondered if it'd be something like Sisko after the end of the DS9 series, [DS9 spoiler] where he supposedly would reappear from time to time as the "Prophets" sent him, but be in some kind of limbo outside time after his "death" falling into the Fire Cave on Bajor [/DS9 spoiler]. I'm glad JMS didn't do that with Sheridan.

A good start to season 4, not quite A standard (in B5 terms) so a B from me. I think part of the reason for this is that this is part of the build up to Into The Fire - not all eps can be A rated, without the build up eps, the A eps would not be anywhere near as good IMO.

I love the scenes with Cartagia, he's just so crazy and Wortham Krimmer plays him so well. One of many examples in B5 where you just can't imagine another actor playing the role. I think it must very very hard to convincingly play a nutter, but he just did it so well (maybe too well ).

He played a nutbar on one of the soaps too...Another World, I think? He was scary there too..

This is a very solid season opener. It has a somewhat different tone than the previous episodes. Everything looks darker still than season 3, especially those scenes in the imperial palace on Centauri Prime, and of course the bit at the end with Lorien.

Near the beginning of this episode, in the scene in council chambers where Ivanova is arguing with the league ambassadors, there's a great bit where someone (the Brakiri representative?) says "Sheridan is dead!" and Delenn counters with "You don't know that!". There is so much emotion in that "You don't know that!" It's great.

Same with Lyta apologizing for new Kosh. She plays it cool at first "Was there anything you wanted?" but then at the end, she is clearly greatly disturbed by the new Vorlon's ambassador's behavior as well.

C̶a̶l̶i̶g̶u̶l̶a̶ Cartagia is fantastic. He's a glorious madman. What a great character. Completely mad, and fabulous. I've always really liked Virini, too. I used to use one of his lines from a later episode as a signature ("I think we are well beyond pastels now"). And of course, Londo's realization of what he's going to have to do to "fix" this, and his comment about his relationship with Vir "you are the closest thing I have to a friend". It's all excellent stuff.

There's a lot of sadness in this episode, especially near the end, when the Sheridan rescue mission is a total failure. Even Delenn is losing hope.

What IS "the eye", exactly? The Shadows have a planetary defense system based on telepathy? That's an interesting choice, for sure.

I'm a big fan of Lennier's "initiating 'getting the hell out of here' maneuver"

I like the bit where it cuts from a shot of Ivanova's stat bar to Sheridan's stat bar dropping in the cave.

Have just watched this now as part of my rewatch. Really good stuff. At the time it was perhaps not the follow-up to Z'Ha'Dum that we expected and it's a fairly slow episode, but watching it after the fact you can see how JMS is slowly moving his pieces into position for the culmination of the Shadow War.

I always listen out for the music and in this episode Christopher Franke introduces some new sounds and motifs, especially for the Centauri Prime scenes, that I particularly like. I've not watched this episode too often since it aired but I had a wave of nostalgia watching it today, I think the music helped with that.

Londo was taking such a risk challenging the Emperor! He changes tact after this, it's really interesting seeing how he plots against the Emperor and definitely a highlight of this season. And even Vir has changed. Two seasons ago Vir would never have been willing to get involved in this kind of conspiracy, but now he steps up to the plate, but he'll have to deal with the consequences of that in a few epsiodes.